Vivian Westmere

Once, she was the blade in the dark — thief by day, assassin by night. A woman of cunning hands and quiet footfalls, she joined the Hero’s Flame to face the Demon King. For a time, she was salvation: striking where light could not, doing what others could not bear. But victory does not heal all wounds. When the Demon King fell, the heroes returned — not whole, but broken. And Vivian broke worst of all.   Under the touch of Pandora’s Curse, her heart became hollow. Her hands turned to murder. Her smile to seduction. Her voice to venom. She toyed with kings and beggars alike, spreading ruin not out of hunger, but out of nothingness. The world knew her as traitor, deviant, beast — the shadow behind Princess Ariana’s disappearance.   Yet three souls refused to abandon her:   Yohnu, who saw the wounded girl still caged inside.   Alistair, who withstood her cruelty without faltering.   Muse, who reached into her abyss and pulled her screaming from it.   They did not free her with steel, but with faith. And so the curse was severed.   Now Vivian walks as herself again — Val Verda, the healer she once was, who once sought Illya’s Wisdom and braved the Calamity that consumed her companions. Her body is her own. Her will is her own. But her memory is scarred: the curse may be gone, but the monster wore her face.   Her path now leads to Goldenwind. Not with poison in her veins, but with bare hands and bowed head — to stand before King John and the family she betrayed.   She is no longer possessed. But she is not innocent. And some truths cannot be buried. Only borne.